When hydrogen is produced or purified from a pipeline supply, and delivered locally to support the fueling of hydrogen powered vehicles, a compressor must be sized to accommodate the mass flow and discharge pressure of the hydrogen generator, purifier or local source, at some multiple of the average hydrogen vehicle demand. Known systems, use one multi-stage compressor to take on-site hydrogen from the output pressure of the generator to the cascading storage pressures required of the vehicle dispensing system. However, for hydrogen vehicle refueling to be entirely useful on a larger, commercial scale, locally produced or purified hydrogen fuel must be manufactured at or near the maximum capacity of the production system, stored in sufficient quantities, and then delivered to the point of use (the vehicle dispenser) efficiently, and promptly, at a mass flow rate of from about 20 to about 100 grams per second.
Known systems use a compressor to facilitate hydrogen fuel manufacture and delivery to the system and an end use at a fixed production rate and capacity that is not dependent on, or even related to the demands and requirements of the selected end use (e.g. capacity and flow rate, etc.). However, one recognized problem with the known hydrogen fuel manufacturing and delivery systems is that the end use demand and requirements are often different from the condition and capacity of the manufactured hydrogen fuel. That is, while a manufacturing system may be designed to produce hydrogen fuel at a fixed rate, pressure and capacity, the end use, or delivery phase of the system has very different requirements. The present invention is directed to fulfilling the need of a practical and efficient hydrogen production and delivery system.